Community Prevention Policy and Practice

Prevention Institute works with partners across the country and develops resources to promote upstream, equity-oriented prevention policies and practices. To find out the latest federal policy news and advocacy opportunities visit our Policy and Advocacy Portal.

Projects & Initiatives

Prevention Institute works with a breadth of partners and communities to develop strategies and practices to keep people healthy and safe in the first place. Below is a selection of ongoing or recent projects.

Prevention Institute is partnering with the St. Joseph Health Community Partnership Fund and seven California-based community collaboratives working to improve health and equity. The collaboratives will address community factors that shape health, safety, and wellbeing—and provide a model for other healthcare systems that want to go beyond the exam room and into the community to address the underlying causes of illness and injury.

Prevention Institute provides support to the BUILD Health Challenge—a unique coalition of national and regional funding organizations--designed to encourage communities to develop meaningful partnerships among hospitals and health systems, community-based organizations, local health departments, and other organizations to improve the overall health of local residents. The goal of the BUILD Health Challenge is to identify, accelerate, and spotlight best practice models and innovative approaches that reorient the field toward upstream factors that influence health.

http://preventioninstitute.org/email-updates-subscribeThe Prevention Rapid Response Network offers subscribers the latest prevention policy news, updates, tools and advocacy opportunities in support of prevention and public health efforts in communities and across the country.

In partnership with the American Public Health Association, Public Health Institute and Trust for America’s Health, Prevention Institute is sponsoring a Dialogue4Health web-forum series on community prevention.

Californians have a tremendous stake in the national policy debates underway. Fundamental issues like healthcare access, environmental protections, privatization of public-sector assets and services, and the rights of vulnerable and marginalized communities hang in the balance. Our state is already poised to protect many of the core factors that form the bedrock of Californians’ health and well-being. Together, California communities, families, decision-makers, business leaders, and lawmakers have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to take a proactive and affirmative stance that propels us toward a future that is fair, just, and prosperous for all of our residents.

Prevention Institute has a 20-year history of promoting quality primary prevention—the skills and approaches to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, we have immersed ourselves in assessing the path forward for prevention and equity.

Prevention Institute’s Larry Cohen and John Auerbach, Executive Director of Trust For America’s Health, published an Op-Ed in The Hill: Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure — Stop Ignoring Preventative Care. Prompted by recent bipartisan efforts to improve the ACA, the Op-Ed emphasizes the importance of building prevention into healthcare policy, which is essential for effectively achieving improved health, lower costs, and reduced burden on the health system.

Tools & Services

We have developed a broad range of practical, free-to-use tools to guide practitioners, advocates, and policymakers in planning and implementing prevention strategies. We also provide services to help you use our tools to create healthy and safe communities.

As a leader responsible for implementing community prevention initiatives, you can harness the power of the media to make the case for community prevention. Ask yourself: if the only understanding that decision makers (and the public) had about community prevention was formed by the media, what would they know? What wouldn’t they know?

Profiles in Action

These profiles, written by PI and our partners, show what community prevention looks like on the ground, all across the country.

Across the country, health providers and public health leaders are challenging the old ways of delivering health services by developing cutting-edge strategies to improve the health of their communities and their patients by addressing underlying community conditions.